


The Sleepover

by josephina_x



Series: Cotton Candy Bingo 2012 [8]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-24
Updated: 2013-07-24
Packaged: 2017-12-21 04:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/895842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Sleepover (random time after the beginning of s4)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sleepover

"You want to _what?_ " Lex asked Clark, slowly lowering his book, the better to stare at him.

"I want to have a sleepover. With my friends."

"...These would be the same friends who were too rude to RSVP for your--"

"Leeeex," Clark complained, plopping down onto the couch next to him. "Just... think of it like a do-over?"

Lex raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's not Lana's fault that her plane flight had to be right then so she could make that summer session in Paris okay--"

"I could've taken her over in the private jet, if it was really that much of a problem and she'd wanted to come."

"--or that Chloe got that internship at the Daily Planet--"

"Actually, I'm fairly sure that my father bribed her with that to get her away from you and your secret alien heritage... _thing_... the first time, and those editors were already primed to say 'yes' to her wanting to come back again," Lex grumbled into his book.

"--or that Pete's parents divorced and he had to move away--"

"He could've stayed in Smallville."

"--or that your dad was being an idiot with that FBI guy and he wasn't actually trying to get Pete killed--"

"Oh, of _course_ not. He was only _'testing'_ him to see whether he would keep your secret for you, and things just went a _little_ out of control because the corrupt idiot 'misunderstood' Lionel's orders," Lex said, accompanied by an eyeroll truly worthy of teenager-level jaded and exasperated angst.

Clark stopped and gave him a _**look**_.

"You're getting good at those. Practice with Martha?" Lex asked mildly, taking a sip from his water bottle and _**eyeing**_ him right back.

Clark threw up his hands.

Lex picked his book back up again, lazily dangling the water from his fingers, and turned a page.

\---

"It's not the gay thing, is it?" Lex asked.

" _What?!?_ "

"Because technically he's bisexual, and it isn't as though such sexual labels mean all that much when applied to him, given that he's--"

Pete's eyes went wide and he grabbed Lex by the arm and dragged him off to the side of the house, away from his other male family members.

"He. did. _not--!_ "

Lex raised an eyebrow. "Clark told me over a plate of just-baked cookies while cleaning up the papers he'd accidentally blown all over the place from my desk bringing them to me a little _too fast_." He paused a moment. "The cookies, not the papers." He paused again. "Well, _showed_ me. Technically, he _told_ me just before that. I didn't believe him at first, hence the subsequent demonstration. --Your turn!"

"I don't know _what_ \--"

"--I hear it had something to do with him physically stopping you from driving away in a huff? ...The hard way? ... _Directly?_ "

Pete stared at him.

"Did he mention that Lionel knows, and actually knew before me?" Lex added.

" **Yes** ," Pete glowered, and it was pretty clear that he was either in denial about that, or didn't want to talk about it with him.

"You know that Clark has strange ideas about truth-telling with family members, don't you?" Lex began, slipping his hands into his pants pockets, and at the look on Pete's face, quickly revised that to, "...He tried to defend Lionel's actions to you, didn't he." Lex sighed. "Of _course_ he did. Idiot."

"Hey!"

"What, you disagree?" Lex said, looking at him askance.

Pete snorted. "Which one?" he asked rhetorically.

Lex wasn't one to let an opening like that slide, however.

"Lionel is hardly an idiot, and if you think so, it'll just leave you open to being blindsided by... --oh, _wait_ ," Lex said, tapping a finger against his lips.

"Shut up," Pete growled out.

"Look," Lex said, dropping the innocent act, "If you let Lionel drive you off, he wins. It's what he wants. Do you _want_ him to have a 2-0 record against your family?"

"Clark's right -- you _do_ fight dirty when you want something," Pete sneered back. It didn't look pleasant on him.

"I do what I need to," Lex said casually and without remorse, tossing the revision of Pete's parting shot to Clark from the beginning of the summer right back at him. "Do you know that he only found out that you were in town for this little end-of-summer family get-together from Chloe by accident?"

Pete snorted and looked away, crossing his arms. " _'Course_ he did," he grumbled. "Chloe can't keep a secret to save her life."

"Perhaps, but that's a different problem. Right now, we're discussing **your** shortcomings." Lex gave him a look. "Believing that your staying away from Clark will inexplicably work as proof against my father's further immediate notice and machinations, for _your **own**_ safety's sake, is one thing" -- _you cowardly fool_ \-- "but refusing to keep in touch with Clark _at all_ is another," he told the teen, "especially when you seem to have no problem continuing to converse with Chloe, who is far more deeply involved with Lionel than Clark is."

"Like hell!"

"Believe it," Lex said seriously. "And yes, at this late date, that _is_ saying something."

When Pete opened his mouth -- ready to jump to Chloe's defense, no doubt -- Lex simply pinched the bridge of his nose and cut him off. "If it's not actually Lionel that's keeping you away from Clark, then what is?"

" _He_ is--"

"No," said Lex, growing irritated. "He's just a decent excuse not to try -- that much is apparent."

" _Clark._ "

Lex blinked. "What about him?"

Pete's jaw clenched. "I didn't want to be here around Clark. Still don't."

Lex was nonplussed.

"... _Why?_ "

"Oh, c'mon man," Pete said, disgusted. "Like you don't feel like you're living in his shadow, too. --Especially if your _dad's_ in on it, and he's..." Pete trailed off, grimacing.

"Martha has the... 'Lionel situation' well-in-hand," Lex said slowly. "He's actually been approaching the ship with caution, strangely enough, and Veritas has been an active oversight, as well." He frowned. "I don't see why you'd feel overshadowed by _Clark_."

"Christ, he's got the _ship_ now?" Pete muttered under his breath, scrubbing a hand over his face. " _Wonderful._ Good luck to Mrs. K. -- she's gonna need it."

Lex _almost_ protested that she was no longer any sort of 'Mrs. K.'

"...'Overshadowed'?" Lex pressed.

"He's... well, _him!_ " Pete said, sounding irritated.

Lex stood there and mused over Pete and what he knew of him for awhile.

"...You do realize that Clark is far higher on the Kinsey scale than would be conducive for him to be pursuing certain members of the opposite sex for mature, adult relations?" Lex said delicately.

Pete gave him a blank look.

"Clark's too far on the gay side of bisexual to ever be sexually interested in Chloe," Lex told him straight out.

"Like that helps," Pete muttered, turning red.

"Given that he was planning on coming out to Chloe and Lana at this sleepover he wants to have, I would think so," Lex said mildly.

Pete gave him a weird look sidelong.

"He came to this self-realization over the summer, and they've both been away. He wanted to tell them in-person." Lex gave him a significant look. "And you, once he heard that you were here."

"Like I really want him taking a pass at me," Pete scoffed. "'Cause that would make things _so_ much better, now," he continued, half-sarcastic, half-disgusted.

Lex resisted the urge to punch Pete in the face, but the boy noticed the tensed shift in his stance and the fists he held clenched at his sides.

And for some reason, Pete paled slightly.

His reaction was like blood in the water. Lex grinned at him nastily. "Well, you've certainly made this much easier for me. And here I'd thought I'd have to try and play nice with you for the forseeable future." He straightened. "You _aren't_ welcome at the mansion. Consider yourself disinvited."

"Chloe hasn't even asked me for him yet!" Pete called after Lex as he stomped down the grassy lawn towards his car.

"Not my problem!" Lex called back easily, and he jumped over the seat and slid in.

He drove away seething. 'Take a pass at Pete.' As if! As if Clark would do something like that to--! with...! --No. **No.** No, Clark had better manners, and better taste, besides. Pete was straight as an arrow, and certainly not **nearly** good enough for his step-brother, casual association or otherwise! His father had been _right_ about the little jerk.

...Huh. His father had been _right_ about Pete.

...

Lex threw on his sunglasses and shook it off. Even a broken clock was right twice a day, and not letting people close was as close to a constant refrain from Lionel as Lex could ever remember hearing.

That, and it was family against the world. Luthors stick together.

Clark might not be a Luthor, but he sure as hell was family.

\---

Pete showed at the sleepover.

Clark was overjoyed.

Lex was pissed.


End file.
